Tales from a dad (Thomas Lionblood), a mom (Bailey Skystaff), and two kids (Amber Deathsong and Kyle Skystaff) playing Wizard101, an MMO from KingsIsle Entertainment

Friday, March 19, 2010

Is the drop rate lower when you farm with friends?

Tyler Deathblade queries as follows:

Dear Friendly, Is the drop rate lower when you farm with friends or is it the same?Thanks,Tyler Deathblade

TYLER! This sounds proposterous! ABSOLUTELY CRAZY TALK!

But, I asked Greyrose just to see if there could be anything coded into the game that would affect drop rates when it comes to farming with or without friends. I would have no possible way of knowing this.

This was her answer:

It’s exactly the same.You have an x% chance of getting a certain item from a creature when you duel solo.You have an x% chance of getting a certain item from a creature when you duel with friends.Your friends have the exact same x% chance of getting the item, and that % chance is not affected by the presence of other players in the duel circle with you.

So no longer can your friends use THAT excuse to not let you come farm with them. ;-)

My son and I both farm Jade Oni (we are both death wizards, he puts up blades, I put up traps and then in about 4-5 rounds we 1hit kill him). Anyway, we have been doing this to earn money for our lower level characters (we put the drops in the shared bank and then our alts sell the stuff to buy mounts/gear/etc).

Anyway, my daughter is only level 12 and she would pop in during our fights and just pass, and get all the loot as well. And because we do this A LOT, she has a class house along with the best gear she can get at level 12 and I believe 3 crown drops for when she is higher level.

So I am glad to hear that it doesn't affect the drop rate for us. I never thought about it. Although I will say that none of us have gotten the Jade Oni pet yet. :)

I think the question could be re-worded, no offense meant at all.My question would be more like "Does having other wizards with you, while farming, give YOU less chance of getting the item YOU want?" And I have to believe it does. Every time I have tried getting something with someone, OR if they were trying to get something with me around...well, the one who didn't care about it so much ended up with it.Also I have experienced that it really does help to take in a different wizard to farm for an item for another wizard. Example: I take in two wizards to Malistaire's(with no one else coming in,) both my own. If I want one item on one account I take in the wizard on the other account which is a member of the school I want the item for on the first account. Like If I want a Life robe on account 1, then I take in a Life wizard on account 2. When the robe drops it will go to whatever wizard I brought in on account 1(most of the time,) then they can drop it in the shared bank and give it to the wizard that needed it. It really has worked well like this.

The thing that Greyrose said, I am sure is pretty true, but logically if there are more people trying to get an item then not everyone is going to get that item. One person "might" get lucky 5 times in a row, for all it matters, while no one else gets what they are trying for. This is why I like to solo farm, myself. I also hate "helping" someone farm because I am afraid I will end up with what they want. If I do bring in another wizard with me it's one of my own and I don't care if they get it *evil grin*

Then there is the question of whether hitting the boss affects the drop rate for the good stuff. I think not, but my kids are only just starting to believe that it doesn't matter. They used to get annoyed when someone else would hit the boss more, fearing that it would negatively affect the drop rate for them. (I think that Prof. Greyrose's response means that it doesn't matter who hits the boss.)

@smvb: I think that too sometimes when I play with my mom(or someone else that wants me to hit all the time...lol.) And often times since I am making the hit it does seem that I get the most, but sometimes she gets good stuff too, and sometimes we even get the exact same things! Like yesterday we both got the same level 40 staff from one of the MS bosses!

But I have also found Life to be pretty darn lucky even when all they are doing is healing, not attacking. I had my level 30 life guy, level 37 Ice girl, level 36 balance go back in and do tomb of the beguiler together last night and the Life guy ran away with most of the stuff and he went in last. Most of the time all he did was pass until some real healing was needed, which I had made him some rebirths for, so he was able to wait quite a bit before healing everyone.

So, I donno...I think it's often just random like that...though I do think Life is pretty lucky...maybe cause they are the green school...lol.(Though my dude is in red and white...like the red cross...lol)

I don't think so... I'm fire, so I solo all the time and its fine, but when my friend comes we have the profits split and she gets the better loot... sure, you sometimes get less things, but it is quicker with friends. But only one- too many and it could get hard!-Grace Ashdust, lvl 39 fire